I kinda like this one its weird and its good to see some new weird commercials that are intriguing, and screw the damn ipod nano little twig, i have people that are friends that refuse to buy it because it feels like its gonna crack in half like a cracker and others that just plain are sick of ipods….. so BACK TO THE ZUNES

I see the criticism of the girl touching the screen, but disagree that it’s meant to confuse. She navigates with the touch pad and then the girl on the screen points her finger, so she touches fingers and is transported inside, to Zuneland or whatever.

Nice ad, visually arresting and gives a nice sense of discovery plus it’s just trippy enough to enjoy watching more than once. Favorite part? The pink cotton candy creatures. Song is catchy in that very subtle way, wonder if they’ll do different takes on that theme for different demographic markets. Good pick with the red, it has a bit more sex appeal than any of the iPods, no wonder they picked a female for the spot since it’s almost a lipstick red.

That being said the iPod silhouettes are simple enough that you can recycle the theme over and over again like Apple has done for years, very similar to the Gap and MasterCard ads. That helps build brand recognition but of course they also run the risk of going stale which the silhouettes sorta have, hence why the latest crop of iPod ads are different.

@Brandon Clinger: Most people believe the new software and firmware will be out the same day as the new hardware, which most agree is going to be November 13th, 2007. Could be earlier of course but that’s the general vibe.

And I’m ditching my Pod for a Zune. Slick interface, longer battery life, and finally I’ll get to ditch the number one product of mass appeal.

iPod has lost it’s touch – purely from a marketing sense. They have done well to hold on this long and while the silhouettes are now a cult icon, its just getting too boring for me. While I’m not saying it won’t continue to sell strongly, I expect Microsoft to slowly claw their way back into the game just as they did with in the gaming market.

“…Zune has no compelling advantage over the iPod, other than being not-the-iPod. With the possible exception of Sony (that apparently cannot write software if its life depended on it), there’s really no other company better positioned to challenge Apple’s digital music hegemony than Microsoft. But is Microsoft being delusional here or is Zune 2 just a bridge to Zune 3 that’ll crush the iPod?”

“So what does Microsoft do for Zune 2? Double the ad budget ($17 million for the next six months), change the ad agency (McCann-Erickson’s new T.A.G. unit in San Francisco) and drop the “Welcome to the Social” strategy.”

I think the ad is cute and nice, but I would have fired my ad agency if they came to me with that girl touching the screen. Not only that, but the tired ocean and jellyfish imagery falls short. I also couldn’t tell if this ad was originally called “Welcome to the Social” and then changed to “Ballad of Tina Pink” when they nixed the “social” part. Does anybody know? The Academy of Dreams ad is much better. My favorite part is that they used voxels. I’ve linked to a post I wrote about it above if anybody is interested.

@ Gr: It appears to me that a child has forgotten how to research and only tried to assume the Zune has a touch screen. I also have found out that you learned how to swear. You know what’s pathetic. You! Just like Shawn Oster said you’ll be perfect for those Apple v.s. PC ads.
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Anyways the commercial is nice and the music suits it even though I was lost when she dived in the water.